


Narcissus

by Kai_Heartnet



Series: Bullets and Numbering [3]
Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Abuse and slaughter of perfectly good music, Gen, I don't know why I have such a soft spot for him, I might do more with this later, Narcissus - Freeform, Special snowflakes usually melt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-14
Updated: 2015-08-13
Packaged: 2018-04-09 03:13:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4331598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kai_Heartnet/pseuds/Kai_Heartnet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once upon a time, a boy became a flower...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Narcissus and Echo

**Author's Note:**

> Actual music was harmed in the making of this fiction, but I claim no ownership except for the knife that butchered it. Also, warning for messing with how echoes actually work.

_**The Hunter** _

 

The day was just beginning, and the morning dew had barely evaporated from the forest floor as Narcissus made his way toward his favorite clearing. He had hunted in the forest enough to know every bend and every bough, though new things still made themselves known to him. Every so often, he would hear a new type of jaybird singing a song, or track some mysterious animal that turned out to be a faun lost on its way to petition Pan. He loved that everything so familiar could still be so new, and most of all, he loved the peace of it all.

On a normal day, a bird didn't fall in love with him. On a normal day, fauns rarely stopped to compliment him on his looks. Narcissus lived for normal days when hunting.

He was told that he was blessed. As a demigod- and in a way, he was- he was infinitely more beautiful than any human. This wasn't something he asked for. He hated the lewd glances he received whenever he entered a room, and the harsh whispers that followed after he began to leave. He hated the constant flow of suitors, both male and female, mortal and immortal alike. He hated their claims of love when all they'd ever seen of him was his face.

So, he hunted.

And again, as his day had just begun, he was looking forward to the peace. This particular forest was normally devoid of anything resembling a person. There were rumors of haunting spirits and mocking imps- something Narcissus had never seen proof of- and so most kept their distance. There was also dangers of avalanches from the looming mountain the forest rested at the base of, and many didn't have the constitution to test it. Narcissus, however, wanted to make a home in his beloved forest. He could often imagine it. A home made of rock and mortar to protect him against all the forest and mountain could throw at him, he knew what he would be called.

People would call him a hermit that lived at the bottom of the mountain.

He smiled at that. He could live as a hermit, only venturing out for food from his forest. It would be a dream come true.

 

Noon had long come and nearly gone when he sensed it. Eyes so intense that they stabbed him as he rested by the river. He looked around, wishing it was just a lost faun but knowing all too well what that look meant.

"Who are you?" he asked, his voice sounding more tired than anyone as young as he was deserved to.

" _Who are you_?"

He blinked. He couldn't quite make out if the voice was male or female, nor could he tell where it came from.

"Hello?" he tried again.

" _Hello_?"

He glared in the general direction of the voice.

"I do not like games. Come out."

" _Not...games..._ " the owner finally sighed before stepping out into view.

She was a slight thing- barely as wide as the tree she'd hid behind- and appeared barely corporeal. She had sad eyes that were already filling up with tears. Needless to say, Narcissus was confused. He'd seen many admirers over the years, but he had never seen one so...not there. He rubbed his eyes several times just to ensure himself that he wasn't actually hallucinating.

 _Maybe I'm already going crazy like a hermit_ , he thought to himself.

"Are you a ghost?" he asked after he had- somewhat- convinced himself that she was real.

Her eyes seemed to dry a little with his question, and she gave a shadowy smile that was no doubt creepier than she intended. She came closer and sat across from him. Shaking her head, she repeated his question.

"Are you an imp, determined to drive me mad by repeating everything I say?"

" _Imp! Mad! Everything I say!_ " she shook her head viciously.

"Then...what _are_ you?" Narcissus asked, beginning to inch further away from the girl.

" _Then what are you_?"

Narcissus stood, sickened by the game she continued to play.

"I've had enough of this," he stated and began to go on his way.

" _Enough of this_!" the girl shouted before jumping up and wrapping her arms around him.

 

He died because of a hug.


	2. Nemesis

_**The Fallen** _

 

Of course he pushed her away.

Not only did Narcissus not know this girl, she had quite literally thrown herself upon him. He had encountered plenty who thought his fate should be tied in with theirs. They wanted to kill him and then themselves so that "they could be together forever." He didn't expect the girl to be one of those types, but he also didn't really know her. Had he known in that moment, that in that exact second, his actions would have caused his damnation, he might have let her hug him.

He didn't know.

The girl disappeared and Narcissus' day had been ruined. His forest was no longer safe from _them_ anymore. Sighing, he began to leave.

" _That was cruel, boy_."

He could have screamed as he turned and saw the winged woman before him. He recognized her as the one worshiped as Nemesis, and only his severe confusion kept him from actually screaming.

Nemesis waited for his reaction. She had short, curly black hair that was pushed out of her face in a wind-blown kind of way, and she wore a blue chiton simply because it complimented her slightly darker eyes. Her dark skin seemed to glow as her black wings beat languidly behind her, yet no wind was stirred. Whatever she expected from the young hunter didn't come, and she glared.

"Have you no apologies to give?" she growled.

Still confused, Narcissus looked around to ensure that she was actually talking to him.

_What have I done?_ he wondered.

"What have you-? _You know what you did_!" she shrieked, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and all but dragging him back to the river where he had encountered the weird girl. "You know what you did."

Nemesis continued to chant this, even as she cursed Narcissus to a fate he didn't understand why he deserved.

* * *

 

The world saw him watching his reflection.

The world saw him wilt away and drown in his own sorrow, unable to reach the only one he'd ever loved.

Nemesis didn't curse him to fall in love with his own reflection, though that is what she told everyone when his tragic tale began to circulate around the pantheon. She had done something much more vicious.

Narcissus was forced to look into the water and see the fate of everyone he had ever rejected.

Narcissus saw the girl fade into nothing but a voice.

It was only then that Nemesis allowed him to die.

Narcissus wishes his curse would have been to fall in love with himself.


	3. Heart-to-Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hades is sitting on the floor because I forgot chairs are a thing that can indeed exist.

_**The Denizen** _

 

The Underworld was everything and nothing like the living believed it to be. Everything was a contradiction. Narcissus' cell was cold, but it was also warm. He was scared, but he was at ease. Everything was dark, but everything was light. It was so impossibly strange that no one ever bothered to actually explain it. It was hard to tell if anything was real, but at the same time, it made everything that much easier to take in. No one expected death to make sense after all.

Narcissus didn't get the normal treatment one who came to the Underworld received. He hadn't even been judged to determine if his life had been lived well. He didn't cross Styx, and he never met Charon. The moment he died, he had been thrown in this cell by Thanatos himself, and told to wait.

Narcissus decided that he was at ease. The moment the decision was made, it was fact. He smiled to himself, a strange exhilaration clawing against his skin. He could accept his death. Though he hadn't lived long, the only regret he actually had was engaging that girl before his death. If eternity was meant to be spent waiting in a cell of contradictions, well, there were worse things. He hadn't been thrown into Tartarus, after all. And Nemesis' curse didn't follow him to the Underworld. So yes, he could enjoy this peace.

Unfortunately, his peace was as short-lived as he was.

Perhaps it was mere minutes, or maybe an eternity in itself had passed in the few breaths Narcissus had taken before Hades appeared before him.

He sat outside his cell, eyes watching him with cold calculation.

It felt like an eternity, but maybe it was mere minutes, before Hades spoke. When he did, Narcissus flinched.

"This is pretty pathetic, kid."

There was another long silence as Hades waited for Narcissus to offer up some kind of defense. When he didn't, he continued.

"What are you? Fourteen?"

" _Sixteen_ ," Narcissus corrected indignantly.

Hades scoffed in a very un-godlike manner- which was as close as a laugh as anyone had every witnessed- before silence again moved between them.

During this silence, it hit Narcissus.

_Hades is sitting outside my cell in the Underworld._

"Are you going to judge me?" he asked, surprised by how small his voice sounded.

Hades sighed, appearing more human than most Narcissus had encountered while he was alive.

"I don't judge."

_Then why are you here?_ Narcissus wondered. His heart rate picked up when Hades' eyebrow quirked, making it obvious that he'd heard his thoughts.

" _Someone_ ," he replies with a tone that was half irritation, half amusement, "thinks that you just got dealt a bad hand."

"Zeus?" Narcissus gasped, eyes wide. Hades sneered.

"Please. If it were _him_ , you'd be crying in Tartarus right now. The 'someone' isn't as important as what they've petitioned."

"Which is keeping me from being judged?"

"What is with you and judging?"

"It's kind of a big part of what we're raised on. You're born, you live, you die, you're judged, you're welcomed into eternity," Narcissus shrugged.

"Not much living though, right?"

This time, it was Narcissus who let the silence grow. He swallowed before he gave an answer.

"I don't really mind."

Hades sighed before standing.

"I hate kids," he stated before leaving.

* * *

 

Time was impossible to tell. There was no sun to judge by, and Narcissus never feels hungry. He is never brought food, and his only company is the contradictory cell. He still didn't know his purpose for being there, but he appreciated the solitude. Hades hadn't returned after their last talk which felt like a lifetime ago. In his head, Narcissus knew it could have been only a few hours ago, but it felt like it had been longer. Time felt impossible.

He slept. It felt weird, like sleeping within a dream. He slept on the floor, considering the bed that was in the cell wasn't in the cell. The downside of the whimsical room, he supposed. Still, compared to the damp earth of the forest floor, the cell wasn't that bad to sleep in.

It was after the third time he'd gone to sleep that Hades appeared again. The king of the Underworld placed a chair in front of his cell, and he watched him with his cold eyes.

"You seem pretty put together for someone appraised as the most self-centered being in the world. They even named a psychology term after you."

"I'm not self-centered," Narcissus glared. Most would call him insane simply for talking back to a god, but Hades seemed not to mind.

Hades watched him, but it wasn't in the leering way most people did. It was...different.

"The 'someone' has convinced me of that. Which is why I'm giving you another shot, kid."

"I'm not a kid," Narcissus stated petulantly, and Hades scoffed.

"'Thank you, O Great Lord of the Underworld, for being so benevolent and _bringing me back to life_ ,'" Hades replied in a mock imitation of Narcissus' voice.

Narcissus had the decency to look embarrassed for a full second before he really registered what Hades had said.

"But...I don't want to be brought back to life..."

Hades sat for a while, his expression blank.

"You're afraid."

It wasn't a question, so Narcissus didn't answer.

"Of what?" Hades asked, letting an ounce of curiosity slip into his voice.

Narcissus dropped his gaze to the floor before he answered.

"If I live again, it'll just be the same. What's the point?"

Hades hummed.

"I know someone else who had a similar fear."

"Is this when you tell me to stay positive and things will get better?" Narcissus smirked.

"No, this is the part where I threaten to send your soul to oblivion and wipe your existence from all knowledge if you keep being a cheeky little brat," Hades replied nonchalantly.

Narcissus actually laughed, and Hades raised an amused eyebrow.

* * *

 

He was brought back to life.


	4. Dive Bars and Fast Times

_**The Second Chance** _

Narcissus came into a whole new world. Birds and arrows had been replaced with cell phones and kill orders, and the only hunters seemed to be for sport rather than for food. He had gotten so used to the silence of his cell, the constant noise of the world was deafening. Still, he appreciated it. Though he couldn't know how long he was really dead in his cell, Hades had informed him that he was now in the year 2015. The world was and wasn't at war, and nothing really made sense. The contradictions of his small world had grown into a universe now, and he couldn't quite figure out the modern world. It was like everyone had gone mad, and embracing it had made the world easier to live in. Hades had called it technology.

He originally handed Narcissus off to Apollo. Hades wouldn't reveal to him who the mysterious "someone" was who fought for his release, but he had informed him that Apollo had been a strong supporter of him, too. That, and he figured Apollo could introduce him into the new world a lot easier than he could have. Out of all of the main twelve, Apollo was the most adjusted- something no one in the pantheon thought would be said.

He stayed with the sun god for a total of nine hours. They traversed the mortal world- which neither Apollo or Narcissus was sure the old hunter belonged to anymore- and engaged in Apollo's favorite past-time. Karaoke.

Souls in Tartarus heard the murderous wails of Narcissus as he attempted the chorus for "Mr. Saxo Beat." This is a proven fact because Hades also heard it and reclaimed his charge.

He then gave Narcissus to Eros. At the absolute worst, _he_ could only make him fall in love, which might not be that bad for the kid.

At best, it would at least be a few years before he saw him again in his realm.

**Author's Note:**

> Note: I picked Greek and Roman so that I could use the alternative names that I preferred. (I. e. "Faun" over "Satyr" or "Eros" over "Cupid".)


End file.
